Saturday, 2 December 2017

Why Everyone Can Raise Awareness Of Mental Health | Maison de Choup

It's no shock by now that I'm passionate about raising awareness around mental health. Bloody hell, I have a whole blog pretty much dedicated to it. It's important and a crucial step in ending the stigma. So when we think of ending mental health stigma, we often think we need to share our personal stories and experiences. Whether that be on YouTube, through blogging or even on Facebook for some.

Some may even feel pressured into sharing their story even if they don't feel comfortable because 'how on earth can you spread awareness without baring your soul to the internet?'

Don't get me wrong raising awareness around mental health through sharing personal accounts and experiences is fundamentally essential. But for some, this isn't even possible. It's counterintuitive to expect someone to share their story even if it affects their mental health negatively.

Fear, embarrassment, having an unsupportive family or even not having the platform to share their story are some of the reasons why raising mental health awareness in this very traditional sense is not going to be for everyone.

The same could be said for people who want to support mental health charities or raise awareness of mental illness but don't have personal experience themselves. How can they be expected to share a story if they don't have a story to share in the first place? For me, this attitude seems very discriminatory. It's almost like society is saying 'Only those with terrible mental illness experiences and stories are valid enough to raise awareness of mental health' This is simply not the case. Mental health awareness is accessible to all.

This idea lead me to think of other more accessible ways mental health awareness can be conducted which lead to me stumbling across Maison de Choup, where I instantly fell in love...

Maison de Choup is the brainchild of George Hodgson who suffered from anxiety himself as a young man. Maison de Choup's main aim is to raise awareness and support young people suffering from mental health problems which is why they are partnered with and give 25% of all proceeds from their 'words fail me' and 'warrior' collection to YoungMinds. YoungMinds is an incredibly important leading charity in the U.K who do incredible work to raise awareness and support young people struggling with their mental health.

Maison de Choup's collection of garments from t-shirts to bags doesn't scream mental health awareness. There is no big red arrow pointing to you, which says " I have anxiety look at me" which is what I love about Maison de Choup's design. Because raising awareness of mental health doesn't have to be and should not be a competition of who can shout the loudest or whose had the worst experiences.

Instead, their simplistic and minimalistic designs are effective little nods to people who struggle with anxiety or their mental health. Take for example their words fail me collection, which is an incredibly clever way of summing up how people with anxiety feel when they are unable to express how they are feeling to their friends and family. Something which I'm all too familiar with myself.

See what I mean? Raising awareness of mental health is accessible to all. Whether you have had experience of struggling with a mental illness but aren't ready to share your story or you just want to campaign to end the stigma because you know loved ones who have struggled, you can do so through one of Maison de Choup's beautiful products.

I'm proud of my mental illness. Don't get me wrong I never wanted to struggle with my mental health, and I don't wish mental illness upon anyone. But I've learnt not to be ashamed of my mental illness. It's made me, me at the end of the day. I can literally wear my mental health struggle with pride with Maison de Choup's range of simple yet effective designs.

Shouting about mental health from the top of the rooftops isn't for everyone, and it shouldn't have to be either. But by wearing one of Maison de Choup's cleverly designed products you can show your appreciation for the work that YoungMinds does to support young people's mental health and emotional wellbeing. You can show you are not ashamed of having a mental illness, and you care about ending the stigma around mental health, without uttering a word. That in itself is incredible.

However, the key purpose of raising awareness of mental health or anything for that matter is that it gets important conversations started. With Maison de Choup's stunning t-shirts you can do just that. You may be asked about the meaning of the top your wearing or asked where did you get that hoodie from?

Mental health awareness isn't something which has to be kept hushed away behind closed doors. Everyone can engage in mental health awareness, and that's what I love so much about Maison de Choup's products is they do just that. They make mental health awareness accessible to all.

I really hope you enjoyed this post. It was an honour to collaborate with George and Maison de Choup who are so dedicated to supporting young people's mental health through beautifully designed and fashionable, needless to say, products. I really hope you get your hands on some of the products Maison de Choup sells because if you don't, you're missing out on an incredibly innovative idea

Do you think mental health awareness is accessible to all? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading, as always X

* Thank you Maison de Choup for gifting me this item. This post is not sponsored, and all opinions are my own